Persepolis Review

I finally got to see the wonderful animated film Persepolis about two weeks ago on DVD and have wanted to review it (but health issues held me back from a coherent thought). So, I finally have a chance to do it.

Plot: Persepolis is the true story of Marjane Satrapi in revolutionary Iran, her travels to Europe, and back to post Iran-Iraq war Iran. It’s an amazing perspective on history, from someone living it first hand. I’ve enjoyed these types of graphic novels more and more (and those probably merit an entry at some point), and look forward to see how this version of story telling evolves. The story is very sharp but I felt the movie wasn’t as fleshed out as the graphic novel in this department. It felt choppy at times and a smoothness seemed lacking (weird saying animation wasn’t as smooth as the printed graphics).

Animation: I’ve never really known French animation and enjoyed it very much. I think I might to see what else is available. The style fit the graphic novel’s images very well and did bring it’s very stylized look to life.

Voice Acting: The voice acting is what really threw me off. I watched the American dubbed version and was put off by the varied voices that didn’t seem to gel together. It pulled me out of the story a little. Maybe with subtitles it’d be better, but something was just, well, off.

Extras: No idea here, I tend to watch the movie and maybe check out extras, I haven’t yet for this.

Movie vs. Graphic Novel: As I stated above the movie seems like a condensed version of the graphic novel. And it really comes down to how much time do you have. If you like to read, go the graphic novel route, and if you don’t the movie is still excellent and might be better since you don’t know what you’re missing.

Verdict: An excellent story and you can’t go wrong with watching the movie, reading the graphic novel, or both.

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